DNAVEC ADVANTAGES

DNAVEC has the following advantages in business development:

1. Our original technologies is protected with patents
2. Superior gene transfers and gene expressions, higher therapeutic efficacyand safety, and practicability to being applied in a wide-range of diseases
3. Diversity and flexibility of commercializationbased on a platform technology of vectors
4. Cooperative development with many influential partners in both domestic and overseas areas

１．A group of original technologies protected by patents

DNAVEC’s vector technologies are peculiarly original¹⁾ having been nurtured within a Japanese national project and took 9 years to have succeed in systematization from a basic technology to a mass-production technology. Particularly the “Sendai Virus Vectors², hereafter SeV⁾”, the major technology of our company, gained ascendancy worldwide through the application of 65 patents in major countries (we have already taken out patents in America and the Republic of China). And since we did gain the rights at a material level, fundamental patents so to speak, the patent trouble often seen when it comes to commercialization are largely reduced in comparison with the vectors from other companies.

2. Superior gene transfers and gene expressions, and better therapeutic efficacy and safety
Our SeV vector  is a completely new class of vector with  a novel  concept we call the “CYTOPLASMIC RNA³⁾ VECTOR”.

SeV vector shows a considerably higher level of gene transfer into cells compared with existing vectors⁴⁾ of other companies, for example, from several thousand times to several ten thousand times in mouse lungs, and it would be possible to reduce the amount of the vector administered to patients in gene therapy. In addition, a sufficient amount of genes could be transferred within a short period of contacting cells. For instance, although it currently takes 30 to 60 minutes for gene transfers in the case of blood vessel endothelial cells, it is possible to reduce that time to just 5 minutes or less with this vector. And through that, we can reduce the burden on patients and it would be a convenient useful technology in clinics.

Moreover, it has been obstructive in the development of gene therapy drugs and gene vaccine commercialization that existing vectors have been inevitably accompanied by the risk of host chromosomal damages. Because these vectors should to enter the nucleus of cells to work as DNA, and positively recombine with a patient’s chromosomes or possibly recombine with them even though said to be rare.  Since in our SeV vector (not a DNA vector but a RNA vector), gene expression takes place in the cytoplasm, that is, outside the nucleus, there is theoretically no such genetic toxicity,  and thus  our vectors are thought to be particularly safer than those existing from this view point. In that way, our vectors could succeed in leading the gene therapy and gene vaccine businesses much more reliably.

SeV vector Existing vectors

3. Diverse and flexible way in commercialization based on the platform technology of vectors: Applicable to a wide spectrum of diseases
Research organizations and pharmaceutical companies throughout the world are furiously having it out to seek and develop excellent vectors. You could largely change the global gene therapy situation if you developed a very safe vector with high gene transfer and high gene expression. The aim of our company is on playing an important role in a wide variety of fields of medicine, utilizing our excellent platform technology.

SeVs have a characteristic wide spectrum of target cells and tissues to which therapeutic and investigational genes could be transferred. For example, SeVs can even penetrate thick mucous membranes, whereas existing vectors can not. Thus, it would be possible to practically apply the vectors in gene therapy for disorders in the respiratory tract, such as the trachea, bronchi and lungs, or in kidneys, and the central nervous system etc. that have been considered difficult to treat with gene therapy. Research and clinical development are already progressing in the fields of diverse diseases of the circulation system, respiratory system, musculoskeletal system, ophthalmic system, and in cancer, AIDS and SARS etc.

4. Cooperative development with many influential partners domestically and overseas
Cooperative researches and developments with many influential universities, research organizations and pharmaceutical companies both domestically and overseas are progressing, backed by the high assessment of the  pioneering SeV vectgor  (“cytoplasmic RNA vector”), our unique original technology.

Domestic area: 9 organizations (universities and research organizations)

Europe and USA : 5 organizations (universities and research organizations)

Republic of China : 3 organizations (a university, a research organization and a pharmaceutical company)

DNAVEC has been invested in by 4 major domestic pharmaceutical companies (Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd, Sankyo Co., Ltd, Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd and Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical Co., Inc)

Footnotes:
1) Our company has exclusively received the results of researches throughout the 9 years of the project, DNAVEC Research Inc., a national project,
2) Originally, the Sendai virus was a wild virus discovered by researchers of  Tohoku University in 1953. The vectors originate from a strain with weakened virulence that have had more of their unnecessary genes removed, and which have been incessantly improved so as to be administrable to humans. They were developed for use in gene therapy, but are applicable in various other biological researches and their commercialization. The genetic information is coded in the vector RNA backbone.
3) RNA (ribonucleic acid) is a material whose major role in cells is messenger of genetic information coded in DNA in the nucleus (transcription products), moving to the cytoplasm and forming complexs for protein synthesis. Some viruses hold their genetic information as RNA, though their number is small.
4) These are adenovirus vectors, adeno-associated virus vectors and retrovirus vectors etc, vectors that carry in genes to the nucleus of cells and exist in the nucleus as DNA⁵⁾.
5) DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is a material that composes chromosomes in the nucleus of cells. It encodes genetic information.